


wouldn't.

by sweaterboys



Category: Leagues and Legends - E. Jade Lomax
Genre: Gen, spoilers for echoes, uhhhh vaguely au i guess??
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-28 22:41:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14459361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweaterboys/pseuds/sweaterboys
Summary: jack farris is used to nightmares. he's not quite as used to the people around him noticing.





	wouldn't.

**Author's Note:**

> woo this is my first ever completed fic!! p neat ig

Jack wakes with a start. (No, not quite. Not a start. He’s too well-trained for that. So let’s say this instead: Jack Farris wakes up quietly. He doesn’t startle, or sit up abruptly, or scream, or gasp, or shake. He wakes up quietly. He is covered in cold sweat. His breathing only falters a little. He does not shake. He wakes up _quietly_.)

He inhales, exhales. Blinks blearily. He hadn’t meant to fall asleep at Sally-Anne’s; he supposes that either no one wanted to wake him or he was just too heavy for them to carry somewhere else. Probably the first one. Rupert’s been bugging him about how much work he does and how little rest he gets. (Jack ignores him, mostly. He’s done more on less.)

He straightens, sitting up. He runs his hands through his hair, rubs his eyes mechanically. He breathes, and tries to arrange his face into something resembling normal. He thinks he’s succeeded, because no one seems to be paying attention to him. Well, that’s hardly unusual. It _is_ Sally-Anne’s, after all.

Rupert notices (because of course he does). He very gently nudges Laney, who nudges George, who nudges Grey, who doesn’t look up from his book. (No one nudges the person sitting next to him. She doesn’t look like she’d appreciate being nudged.)

“Good morning, sunshine,” says Laney, raising an eyebrow. He makes a noncommittal noise at that. He’d rather avoid conversation at the moment, but he’ll talk if he has to.

Rupert looks at him, assessing, calculating. Dammit. “Jack?” he asks, quietly, kindly. “Everything all right?”

He sighs. “I’m fine.” He _is_. (He isn’t.)

“Jack,” says George. He says nothing. “Nightmare?”

He nods.

George exhales softly. “Liam?”

(Laney flinches minutely. They pretend not to notice.)

“Nah,” he says. He fidgets with the edge of the tablecloth.

“ _Jack_ ,” says George again.

“Not Liam,” Jack says. “Just…” He jerks his head in the general direction of Grey’s neighbor. George nods, understanding, and drops it. Bless her. “

Aww,” drawls Cassandra Graves. “Dreaming about me, Giantkiller? I’m flattered.”

Jack dredges up a crooked grin. “Don’t be,” he tells her. “Night terrors about you are a dime a dozen, you know.”

She looks vaguely affronted at that. “Are you calling me _common_?”

“Might be.” He hadn’t been, but he’s a bit miffed he hadn’t thought of it.

“Hmm.”

Laney squeezes his hand under the table. He smiles tiredly at her. “I’m okay, Lane.”

“Well,” says George. “Jack, I’m off. Work to do. You’ll be all right?”

“Aw, you know me, Georgie. When am I not all right?”

She shakes her head at him. “Dolt.” There’s no sting in it. “You lot take care of him, yeah?”

“Course,” says Laney. “ _Someone’s_ got to.”

Jack feels like he should protest, here, but he doesn’t.

George rises, pushes her chair in, and leaves. He exhales.

“Giantkiller,” says the seeress, abruptly. (Odd. She is many things, but abrupt? Never.) She’s staring at him, and she looks… well, not scared, exactly. Unsettled, maybe? (Again: _odd_.)

“Seeress,” he says, as levelly as he can.

“I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t do that,” she says.

“What?”

“I wouldn’t,” she repeats. “Not to Sam.”

Jack feels like someone just walked on his grave. Filing away the fact that the seeress can _see his nightmares_ , which is the most terrifying thing he’s learned in a while, he says, “I know.” (She would do it– _has_ done it– to anyone, everyone but Grey. He’s seen too many burnt-out mages to think otherwise.)

He pauses. Tilts his head to one side. “But if you did,” he says, slipping into his Giantkiller voice. “If you ever did. If you ever so much as touched him–”

“I _wouldn’t_.”

“I know that. But if you ever did? If you ever do? You’re _dead_ , Cassandra.” He’s never used her first name before. She’s the scariest person he’s ever met. But Jack means every word.

Cassandra Graves looks at him for a long time, then, voice low and powerful, says, “ _Good_.”

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @degayters!!1!11!!


End file.
